Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Close, but No Cigar: Senators 2, Avalanche 3 (OT)

(Source: AP)

Well, we tried. Maybe, in the end, that's the only thing that really matters.

Unfortunately the Senators slipped back into some bad habits last night, at least by my calculation. There were more defensive breakdowns than we've seen since Cory Clouston took over, and some of the boys seemed to make preventable mistakes. I hate to keep ragging on Jason Spezza here, since in general he's been the fans' whipping boy and I haven't agreed with that, but there were several gaffes that just stood out to me. I realize of course that not all these bad habits are going to be broken overnight, but it's just a little discouraging sometimes.

Overall this has been an amazing road trip, though, and I don't want to diminish the value of what the Sens have accomplished. After all, if you'd told me a week ago that they would go on a five-game winning streak and collect 12 of a possible 14 points on this mish-mashy road trip I would have paid your taxi fare to the nuthouse. It just didn't seem possible, even with a new coach and promises that accountability would be the primary byword from now on. (After all, didn't we Sens fans get treated to the same song and dance last summer, without result as it turns out?) I'd stopped thinking that maybe we'd hit rock bottom and then be on our way up; all I could hope for was to survive the rest of this season and then reap the rewards of a high draft pick.

Well, how quickly priorities change with even a sniff of the positive, eh? Suddenly we're thinking moves in the standings, possibly leapfrogging other teams, maybe playoffs and then after that, who knows! It's a mark of how starved most Ottawa fans were for any bit of optimism that the postgame shows went from being filled with rants and anger to high hopes and requests to the commentators to discuss the standings and our chances. Put simply, we're still a longshot for the playoffs and I know that. But, I am an optimist by nature, much moreso than many of my fellow fans, and so I was swept up and swept up hard.

And, because I am an optimist, I can't focus solely on the negatives from last night. Ryan Shannon scored just 30 seconds into last night's game to give the Sens a 1-0 lead, and you can bet it felt good to be dishing out the early goals rather than taking such punishment. Shannon also got the Sens' other goal, on the powerplay, and if not for some very timely saves from Andrew Raycroft I could be writing a much different blog post today. But the hockey gods decreed it be written as such, and despite taking the Avalanche to overtime we were disappointed when Wojtek Wolski (try saying that one five times fast!) scored 80 seconds into the extra frame.

I guess now I'll get my wish, though I didn't realize the hockey gods were listening when I made it - to see how Ottawa responds to a loss. Their next game is tomorrow at Scotiabank Place against the Vancouver Canucks, a match at which your blogger will be dutifully in attendance, and the Sens are absolutely going to have to be sharper and better and more mistake-free than they were in Colorado. As a plus, they won't be traveling through any more time zones after last night's trip and they won't have to cope with the much-discussed thin air in the Mile High City. But, the first game after a road trip is sometimes a stinker, so we'll see.

I, for one, am remaining dutifully optimistic. And I'm damn glad these late games are a thing of the past. Staying up after your bedtime, even when you happen to be taking a sick day the following day, kind of sucks.

No comments:

Post a Comment